A message from Pete Dudley, City Fellow for Education

As a new teacher I loved teaching but was often frustrated by a lack of well evidenced guidance on how to improve my pupils' learning. But my discovery of the work of Neil Mercer did just that. It not only offered good ideas. It explained 'Why' and 'How' my pupils could learn better by working together to solve problems and learn. This was something I had always believed in my gut - but had only 'folk pedagogy' to back it up. Neil's work offered me scientific evidence - and great examples. It help me develop a toolkit for taking pupils learning apart and reassembling it.

All that was 30 years ago this year. Neil is now a Senior Member of Hughes Hall and is still a world leading researcher in this field. I enjoyed a great career in teaching (in no small part due to Neil's work) and am now running education in Camden in addition to being a City Fellow for Education at Hughes. I still follow and promote Neil's work - which was key to my PhD research into teacher learning here at Cambridge a few years ago.

I am therefore very proud to be introducing him to you on 1st February and proud to be involved with the Hughes Oracy Study Centre: a development I believe will change ideas about talk and learning across the world.

Despite Neil's influence on my development it took me 25 years to meet him. So don't make the same mistake as me. Come to his talk on 1 February. It will be a privilege and I guarantee you will learn a lot you will be able to use the following day - let alone over the next 30 years.

Neil is going to introduce the work of the Oracy Centre, and invite questions and comments. And as with previous events, there will be the opportunity to talk to seniors and alumni. An ideal opportunity for networking ...

Finger food and wine/soft drinks will be provided.

More about Neil
Professor Neil Mercer is the Director of the centre Oracy@Cambridge at Hughes Hall and a member of the Psychology and Education Academic Group in the Faculty of Education. He is a psychologist with a special interest in the role of language for collective thinking and in working with teachers to develop children''s spoken language and thinking abilities.

https://www.hughes.cam.ac.uk/academic-life/study-centres/oracy/